China tops electronics producers

China may be battling severe acute respiratory syndrome, or SARS, but that will not stand as an obstacle to it becoming the world’s largest manufacturer of electronics, the Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency said yesterday.

The agency, quoting the Japan Electronics and Information Technology Industries Association, said that of the 12 categories studied, said China this year would become the largest producer of eight electronics products, including color television sets and DVD (digital versatile disk) players.

The largest producer of color TVs since 2000, China is forecast to churn out the most color sets ― 36 million ― again this year. China is also expected to overtake Japan in production of DVD players and DVD-ROM computer drives this year and outstrip North American countries in the production of personal computers and car audio systems.

In the mobile phone market, Chinese-made models are expected to take the largest market share this year, bumping Europe out of the top spot. The mainland is also expected to replace Taiwan as the world’s largest maker of notebook computers this year. China will also have the largest share of the personal digital assistant market, a new ranking category.

China held the largest market share in only two categories in 2000.

Many of the products manufactured in China are under original equipment manufacturing, thus it is hard to say that each Chinese company is the most competitive in the world, an official from the trade promotion agency said. “But China overwhelms Korea in price competitiveness.”

Following large Japanese electronics firms, such as Sony and Panasonic, many Korean electronics companies have moved their production bases to China, the official said. While Korean, Japanese and European brands still sell, they are increasingly made in China, the official said.

Japan, the longtime electronics leader, is expected to defend its top position this year in digital cameras and car navigation tools. Singapore is seen leading in computer hard disk production and Indonesia in VCRs.

Korea ranks in the top five in production of mobile phones, digital cameras, color TVs, notebook and desktop computers, but is not expected to grab the top spot in any category this year.

by Kim Chang-woo